Our last visit to Istanbul in 1991 felt like we were amongst a few westerners exploring an exotic and distant land. This time, however, we were not alone. Mass-tourism had cast its spell transforming many of the monuments into endless queues. But we had a strategy. Buy the tickets online and queue at the entrance 20-30 minutes before the doors opened. Fortunately, we stayed at the White House hotel right in the heart of the historic centre with its bustling narrow winding streets and a short walk to most of the major highlights. Both the Hagia Sophia the former Christian basilica, and the blue mosque were impressive by their scale and grandeur from the outside, particularly at dusk when they dominated the night sky and all their surroundings. Inside much less so, being cavernous and empty, with the jostle of visitors reducing the ambiance offered by the half-light of of an enormous chandelier and daylight streaming through high windows. One outstanding highlight was dinner at the seven hills terrace restaurant at dusk. On one side, we had a panorama of the city overlooking the Marmara sea, and on the other side, a spectacular view of both the Hagia Sophia and […]
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Location, location, location is the popular mantra. Well, our stay at the 17 century Bath place hotel could not have had a better position, located a 100 metres from the heart of the colleges of Oxford. It took less than 1minute to walk through a twisted cobblestone passage to reach the Sheldonian Theatre. The passage passed through the 13th century Turf Tavern frequented by some locals and hordes of tourists. I know this, as our bathroom window opened onto the Turfs’ courtyard. Still, little has changed around the colleges since we lived here some 30 years ago, so we bathed in its nostalgia, visiting many of the colleges, climbing both the Saint Marys church tower and the Sheldonian Theatre cupola (for the first time I must confess) to view the rooftops of Oxford. Now, I know from where the TV Morse program took its panoramic views of the old city. We also took the once a year opportunity offered by the Oxford Preservation Trust to visit the original stacks of the 16century Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera. No photographs and certainly no speaking or touching in these holy places. Fortunately the new Weston library an extension of the Bodleian […]
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Our visit to York. We stayed 3 days in York. Dahlia remained at the Best Western in Dean Court opposite the York Minster Abbey, while I attended a writers conference at York University. We both liked York with its narrow winding medieval streets, particularly in the morning when there were very few visitors. In particular, we really enjoyed the grandeur of the York Minster and its long history. We took a tour of 13 persons. There was a point when the guide was recalling its history, starting around AD 180 then AD 250 and on and on to AD 637 when the first stone structure was erected. By the time the guide reached AD 1000, it sounded like she was talking about the modern era. Overall of the three prominent cathedrals we have visited York Minster Abby, Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame in Paris I would place it 2nd behind Westminster.
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Our visit to Stratford on Avon. We wanted to see a Shakespeare play but the season was over and all we could book was Volpone. Volpone? Never heard of it. Still, any play in the Royal Shakespeare Playhouse would be an experience. It developed that Volpone was a dark comedy about greed and corruption recast into the 21 century and written by Ben Johnson, one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The plot was a bit suss, but the acting was superb. The central character played by Henry Goodman was a tour de force of acting moving easily from one characterization to another. It was a major, but pleasant surprise. We again stayed at the Mercure hotel, a structure composed by combining three 17th century Tudor buildings, located close to the heart of Stratford. Its lunch restaurant was good, but the breakfast cook needs to go back to cooking school. Finally, the ambiance of this historic Tudor town still can be felt, although many new tourist shops are trying to bury it.
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Our Stay at Kings Camp Safari Lodge Timbavati Reserve South Africa. Arrival: The manager picked us up from Hoedspruit airport and drove us the 40 km to Kings Camp Safari Lodge in the centre of the Timbavati game reserve. The camp reminded me of the movie Out of Africa, with a dining room overlooking a small waterhole frequented by buffalo and elephant, and thatched roofed chalets outfitted with exquisite period furniture. The general ambiance and the top quality meals completed the canvas of a classical African 19th century bush experience. Our Stay: We stayed 5 nights and had a private vehicle to ourselves. This allowed us to have 4 hour morning and afternoon game drives of our own choosing and be able to stop for extended times when we saw something of interest. This contrasted with the normal Timbavati Safari vehicle which had 6 persons per vehicle and the itinerary determined by consensus. At the extreme end we saw safari vehicles completely filled with 9 visitors seated 3 abreast; those in the centre hardly able to turn around. During our stay we had two unexpected bonuses: a wonderful bush breakfast under a stand of shade trees, and a buffet dinner in […]
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Ambling (flaner) the streets of Paris is a favourite pastime of ours, particularly in the area bounded by Boulevard St Germain near le Buci on the left bank and the Louvre across the Seine, and encompassing the Latin Quarter at St Michel through le Citie and onto the Marais. This region is a collage of apartments, narrow streets, grand boulevards, restaurants and side walk cafes, antique book shops, galleries selling works of art some of museum quality, odd shaped historic buildings, churches, hole in the wall creperies, a few Irish style pubs and tucked-away boutique hotels. – The area pulsates with life and activity from mid-morning to the evening when the popular streets are packed with pedestrians and the pavements overflow with outdoor cafes. Street artists ranging from virtuosos to the bizarre perform their art where ever they can collect an audience. On Sundays, the Marais is packed and on Rue des Rosiers in the old Jewish quarter unbelievable queues form for take away Falafels. The Falafels are great value as the pita is over stuffed with various fillings, but I must admit that I much prefer the cheesecake slices from Pitzman in Rue Pavee as a sample of local Jewish […]
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First Things First i) Bought a local Sim card for my mobile from Orange. ii) Renewed our Metro Navigo pass for the month of April at an automatic kiosk (€60) without incident, even though it was two years since we last used the pass. iii) Renewed our Friends of the Louvre year pass (€55 p/pp ; note normal single entry is €12), from their office in the underground passage leading from the central information desk to the Carrousel shopping plaza. The pass is available to all and allows entry to the Louvre through the short queue at the main entrance, at the Port de Lyon entrance, the gate in the Richelieu Passage (for groups and pass-holders) or via the passage on the lower floor of the Carrousel shopping mall on Rue de Rivoli at the Tuileries end of the Louvre (for pass and ticket holders, note: tickets can be bought from the tobacco shop, shop 34, and there is a direct passage from the metro palais royal musee louvre). Both the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay can have very long queues, particularly for those without a prepaid ticket. Tickets can be bought in advance from FNAC, Carrefour, and the national tourist […]
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Getting to Paris from Sydney A quick review of the flights. Sydney to Johannesburg: 14 hrs. On time. Qantas business. Lounge good. Airport check-in, and security went smoothly. On board 747 excellent lie flat beds upstairs with 2, 2 configuration. Food excellent, service excellent. Johannesburg-Heathrow: 11.5hrs. On Time. South African business: lounge: good. Transfer between gates went smoothly. On board A320 with good lie flat beds in 2,2 configuration. Food average. Service good. Heathrow-Orley: 1 hour 20m. British airways economy. Delayed 1 hour. Had to pass through immigration (20min), collect bags, then transfer, from T1 to T5, using a greet and meet transfer taxi (20min), then re-check in (10min). All went smoothly. airline boarding OK. Seating 31″ pitch and service OK. Food: poor. Observation: Orly airport is a dream compared to Charles de Gaule. Time taken after touch down to collecting baggage about 20 min. paris overview This will be our fourth 5 week stay in Paris. The last was September two years ago. (See Paris twitter 1-4). My objective is to improve on the photos I took previously, considering that France has strict publication rules for portraits. (note my top photos are not published on this website as they […]
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Hotel Kapok Hotel. We were able to check into a room at 7:30 am. Room was roomy with a king size bed and good ensuite. The hotel is very close to the forbidden city and close to a convenience store. Restaurant for breakfast expensive at CNY100 but good, both European and Chinese. However for lunch and dinner has strange food. Duck blood, bulfrog. Chose mushrooms with pork and pepper. But the pork was thinly sliced pork fat- no meat. This is a problem and will have to find another hotel restaurant for daily meals. The Forbidden city. The hotel is within 300m along Donghuanan st from the east gate of the forbidden city although one cannot enter from this gate. Must walk another 400m along the outer wall to the south gate. There is 20 person electric open bus from the east gate that will transport you to near the south gate for 1CNY per person each way. We took the bus on Sunday and visited the area around the south gate and Tianemen square. The area was totally packed with chinese tourist groups ranging from 5 to 100 persons led by a guide with a small flag on […]
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Final highlights and Conclusion. The Royal Henley Regatta. What impact Royal Henley has on your psyche depends in part on the enclosure of admission. In the Regatta enclosure, (the rump section on the downstream side of the Royal Henley grounds, open to all on payment of an entrance fee), the atmosphere is one of experiencing a world class rowing event at close quarters. There is the added curiosity of watching a menagerie of boats from steamers to dinghies cruise up and down the river spotting the Blazerati and Glitterati of Royal Henley. The Stewards enclosure has a wholly different persona. Here, you are immersed in English high society reveling in the trappings of an Edwardian garden party. It is like being on another planet; both fashionable, and bizarre, with silly hats and garish coloured blazers. An eccentric place of privilege, hierarchy, archaic ritual, and gentlemanly behaviour. This is all interwoven with a serious sport side, where international standard athletes compete in a premium event on the World rowing calendar. It is all just a little over the top, and a great place to experience the excitement over the final reach of the rowing course. Some Must-do at Royal Henley. ♦ Drink Pimms with lemonade from the marquee bars. ♦ Have a picnic of lobster, strawberries and champagne in […]
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